Officials Offer Promises, Few Details to Skeptics at NARUC, FERC

WASHINGTON — Senior Environmental Protection Agency officials promised energy regulators and utility executives last week that the final carbon emission rule the agency issues this summer will protect reliability and not crush consumers.

But the message, delivered at the winter meetings of the National Association of Utility Regulatory Commissioners and a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission technical conference, left many in attendance skeptical. While officials said they will make changes to address concerns raised over the proposed rule issued last June, they offered few details.

Editor’s Note: In the forward to the attached article Jim Tozzi states that Mr. Kogan laid to rest the myth that there were no hearings on the DQA. That said, the final copy of the Kogan report, which is published below, omitted that passage and is being reproduced at the end of this post. The omitted section is of particular significance because it demonstrates that both the Congress and the Administration were more than well aware of the ramifications of the DQA and therefore establishes the basis for the Judiciary not to abuse Article III standing by a judicial intervention based upon Prudential Standing as set forth below.

It was a glittering gem for “Clean Coal” proponents — a coal plant that, advocates said, would have “near-zero emissions” thanks to a plan to capture carbon dioxide and inject it deep beneath the ground. Environmental groups like the Sierra Club scoffed, calling it a “boondoggle” and proceeding to sue.

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FutureGen 2.0 consisted of upgrading an older coal plant located along the Illinois river in the center of the state, and equipping it with so-called “oxy-combustion” technology to aid in the capture of carbon dioxide after burning by separating it from other byproducts. These would then be piped away to be stored underground 30 miles away. The DOE had previously called it a “groundbreaking project” that would “help pave the way for other cleaner and more sustainable advanced coal-burning power plants.”

Coal-fired power stations should be replaced by low-carbon energy sources rather than retrofitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS), according to new research from the University of Oxford.

The study dents the idea that coal can be compatible with climate action as long as it uses CCS. It says finite CCS capacity should be held in reserve in case negative emissions technologies are needed to return dangerous greenhouse gas concentrations to a safe level after 2050.